Trump on sidelines as Clinton fills Olympics airtime

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton wants to get as close as possible to Michael Phelps and Simone Biles. So she’s spending more than $13 million on political ads at the Olympics – while Donald Trump is sitting on the sidelines.

The Democratic presidential nominee is taking advantage of the millions of Americans tuned in to watch the champion swimmer and gymnast, as well as other U.S. athletes, rack up medals during the Summer Games in Rio. Republican Trump, meanwhile, hasn’t aired a single general election ad yet – a decision that baffles some political strategists.

“I’d love to know what they’re waiting for,” said Will Ritter, a Republican ad maker and veteran of Mitt Romney’s presidential bids. Trump’s avoidance of political norms such as advertising “cannot survive the professionalized deconstruction that Hillary is doing every day,” he said.

Clinton’s multimillion-dollar investment meant that across the U.S. viewers, captivated by coverage of top events like swimming and women’s gymnastics, saw her commercials in prime time each of the past three nights, Kantar Media’s political advertising tracker shows.

During the three weeks of Olympics coverage, her campaign is spending $8 million on the national NBC network, $1.1 million more on affiliated cable channels Bravo, USA and MSNBC and $4.5 million on local affiliates in key presidential battleground states such as Florida, according to the tracker.

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